Thursday, August 01, 2013

Dinner at Curry Gardenn

I love Indian food. The only problem is that mom does not, and therefore she does not cook it. To get my fix, I have to eat it outside, and it's not that often that I get to eat it outside either as I usually have dinner at home on weekdays and dinner with my parents on weekends. But one Saturday when my parents had a function, I took the opportunity to have an Indian dinner at Curry Gardenn with my aunt and uncle.

That Saturday evening, Curry Gardenn was packed. People were queueing outside. It was by luck that we only had to wait a few minutes before one table was vacated and we could sit. Curry Gardenn's menu is extensive and there are many options to choose from. Like the idiom "there are many ways to skin a cat", Curry Gardenn offers chicken (amongst other meats) that can be done more than 17 ways.

You can ask the servers for their recommendations, but hopefully you already know what you want. For our table of three, the server recommended that we order individual dishes instead of a set meal. But when our dishes arrived, we saw that the portion size probably only for two, and not much bigger than the portion size of person who ordered their set meals. Choose wisely.

Aunt and uncle commented that the naan fell below their expectations. They like naan that is light, airy and poofy, with a crisp exterior and burnt bits. Curry Gardenn's naan however was flat, thick, dense and doughy. When my uncle asked the owner about it, the owner explained that he does not use baking powder / soda as it is not healthy. That was the first time I heard that baking powder / soda is unhealthy. I do not know how true it is, but my standard for naan's is the same as aunt's and uncle's, and if I cannot have that then I would rather go without.

The rest of the dishes had such a beautifully complex and exquisite flavour. As Curry Gardenn does not use coconut milk in its dishes, but a blend of fruit and nuts, the gravy is much lighter in terms of taste, and on the stomach. Aunt and uncle liked the lightness, and remarked that they could eat a lot without feeling "gela" (nauseous from rich food). Having a light gravy is a nice change - I concur, but only as a change from eating heavy curries, which I prefer a little more than half the time for its heartiness.

In terms of portion size, it was all disappointingly so very small, for the price. There were perhaps only five pieces of chicken in the pot, not even enough to have two each. It was the same situation with the mutton and the vegetables.

As we were still hungry after those dishes, we ordered a tandoori chicken to share. Remembering that we had received a bigger portion in the past, when we ordered to take away, we told the staff that it was a take-away. Indeed, when the clear plastic bag of our tandoori chicken arrived, it seemed like there were eight to ten chunks of chicken within.

But after my uncle asked the same staff to heat up the chicken, it returned in a similar metallic container and there seemed to be fewer pieces of chicken returned to us.

On the whole, Curry Gardenn serves excellent tasting curries, but be prepared to leave with a hole in your wallet if it is a feast that you want.